Endeavouring to restart dialogue on Palestinian statehood as Israel’s devastating war on Gaza grinds on, Saudi Arabia and France hosted a two-day conference at the UN headquarters last week.
Signalling renewed European interest in the Middle East, the meeting also positioned Riyadh at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to revive a political endgame, after nearly two years of an Israeli military campaign that has been widely labelled a genocide.
Though postponed from June, the meeting was attended by representatives from 125 countries, including 50 ministers, indicating ample global interest. Airing the opening session, Saudi state media Al-Ekhbariya described the meeting as ‘a ministerial-level initiative’ for peace in Palestine.
The United States and Israel both boycotted the event.
The two-day conference ended with a seven-page declaration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and a roadmap to establishing a Palestinian state.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud urged other countries to endorse the document before the 80th UN General Assembly starts in September, saying the plan outlines "tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps" towards peace.
Just days before the conference began, French President Emmanuel Macron said France would officially recognise a Palestinian state in September, joining 147 other countries that have already done so.
France and 14 other countries then issued a ‘New York call’ following the conference to recognise Palestinian statehood and build momentum ahead of the General Assembly in September.
It was signed by the foreign ministers of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, and Spain.
"In New York, together with 14 other countries, France is issuing a collective appeal: we express our desire to recognise the State of Palestine and invite those who have not yet done so to join us," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot wrote on X.
Roadmap to Palestinian statehood
The first step outlined in the declaration is an end the 22-month Israeli war and the creation of a “transitional administrative committee” operating under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority.
It also urged the deployment of a temporary international stabilisation mission in Gaza, mandated by the UN Security Council, which could see member states contribute troops.
"Only by ending the war in Gaza, releasing all hostages, ending occupation, rejecting violence and terror, realizing an independent, sovereign, and democratic Palestinian State, ending the occupation of all Arab territories and providing solid security guarantees for Israel and Palestine, can normal relations and coexistence among the region’s peoples and States be achieved," the declaration read.
In what was viewed as unprecedented language regarding the war, the seven-page text also said Hamas “must end its rule” in Gaza and “hand over its weapons” to the Palestinian Authority.
The Arab League and countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt all endorsed the declaration. The Saudi foreign minister also stressed that normalised relations between Arab states and Israel could “only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state”.
Washington focuses on other things
Despite widespread global support for the French-Saudi conference, the US firmly rejected it, instead continuing to push for a ceasefire through back-channel diplomacy.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that the UN event was “unproductive and ill-timed,” and that Washington would not become part of the conference. Instead, it would “continue to lead real-world efforts to end the fighting and deliver a permanent peace”.
The Trump administration’s post-war plan largely echoes the far-right Israeli government, with the US president having earlier this year proposed building a “Riviera” in Gaza and forcibly displacing Palestinians.
Discussing this situation, a European diplomat told The New Arab, under condition of anonymity, that though “in the absence of Israeli participation and US support, the initiative carries a predominantly symbolic weight, it reflects a clear intent to reaffirm diplomatic engagement, reposition both actors within the regional dialogue, and reassert the relevance of the two-state framework”.
While France and Saudi Arabia’s “assertive multilateralism on the Palestinian file suggests a recalibration of the mediation landscape,” the diplomat assessed that without the involvement of key stakeholders, the initiative’s immediate impact on the peace process would be “likely to remain limited, and largely symbolic”.
What did the UN conference on Palestine achieve?
Reflecting a broader international push to reset the trajectory of the Gaza war, the French-Saudi UN conference represented one of the strongest international alignments in recent years.
As Naveed Ahmad, an academic and a Thomas Jefferson fellow, told The New Arab, the initiative presented “the discontent of two major powers - one from Europe and the other from the Muslim and Arab world - against America’s support for Israel”.
In Ahmad’s opinion, the fact that two other G-7 countries, the UK and Canada, have also announced they will recognise Palestinian statehood proves that diplomacy is far from irrelevant. “Recognition [of Palestine] from powerful countries hurts Tel Aviv politically,” he said.
Regionally, what distinguished this effort was Saudi Arabia’s increasingly active leadership on the diplomatic front. By building bridges between Europe, the Arab world, and the Global South, Riyadh has emerged as a central player in shaping a long-elusive endgame.
According to the European diplomat, for Saudi Arabia, the initiative also serves a “broader regional objective: reinforcing its image as a credible and proactive actor on the Palestinian file”.
He said that “in doing so, Riyadh seeks to reclaim symbolic capital traditionally associated with Tehran, its historical rival - now facing visible internal and external challenges - and to present itself as a more pragmatic and effective defender of the Palestinian cause”.
For decades, most UN members have supported the two-state solution. As part of a broader European initiative, these statements of support have some symbolic standing, but cannot necessarily prevent material collapse.
Pointing out this fact, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the meeting that "the two-state solution is farther than ever before,” amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the deepening Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the absence of a credible political horizon.
Amid rising global anger and mass starvation in Gaza, the French-Saudi initiative was the most significant time Arab and Western states have cooperated without US or Israeli participation in an attempt to end the war, a key achievement on its own.
But without the backing of the US, the most powerful ally of an Israeli government that firmly rejects Palestinian statehood, the impact of this international momentum could remain largely symbolic.
Sabena Siddiqui is a foreign affairs journalist, lawyer, and geopolitical analyst specialising in modern China, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Follow her on X: @sabena_siddiqi